Netgear adds Sling; Sling expands features

Netgear has added Sling technology to a line of streaming media players. Meanwhile, Sling Media has upgraded the search and navigation software for its own Slingbox products.

Netgear has added the SlingPlayer to its NeoTV over the top (OTT) boxes, including the NeoTV Prime with Google TV. The integration enables an automatic whole-home experience; customers can sling video from their main TV sets to second and third screens in their homes or elsewhere.

In addition to SlingPlayer, Netgear has also added TuneIn Radio and ShopNBC to a growing list of hundreds of existing NeoTV streaming channels including Netflix, Hulu Plus, Vudu, Pandora, Rhapsody, YouTube, Intelâ Wireless Display (WiDi) and more.

“The line between broadcast live TV and broadband streaming continues to narrow,” said Damir Skripic, product line manager for connected entertainment at Netgear. “With the addition of SlingPlayer, Slingbox owners can now use their Internet connection to stream live or recorded TV programming to NeoTV Streaming Players connected to any TVs at home or even remotely.”

Sling Media introduced an extension to its currently available SlingProjector called SlingSync. SlingSync enables customers to sync photos and videos to a Slingbox 500 with a connected USB drive, and view them on a TV.

The company specifically envisions people using the facility to download media captured on smartphones to their Slingboxes. The company described it as acting “like a personal cloud that allows Slingbox 500 customers to archive and store their captured moments onto a secure, compact USB drive while creating more space on their smartphone to collect new ones.”

Sling Media also introduced a second-screen social TV application, called Slingbox Companion. Originally available for iPad 2 and higher, and later for Android systems, it will run with the Slingbox 500 initially. Sling Media will enable it for customers of the Slingbox 350 later this year.

Slingbox Companion will feature content discovery tools that help customers find shows based on their interests. They can then navigate to the selected show to watch on the TV using the tablet app as a remote.